Just Tom
by PenPusher4
Summary: Tom Riddle AKA Voldemort not only feares death but darkness itself...


Disclaimer : I do NOT own HP but JKR does...unfortunatelly..

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There were rumors all around the orphanage, about this _strange boy_ who always tends to stick for himself.

Strange, unnormal, often awful things used to happen in his near_. His playmates_ - how the orphanages´ staff always referred to the other children when speaking with this kid, seemingly in a long ago given up attempt to socialize him a bit more and remind him to be all nice and friendly when it comes down to the other orphants - naturally soon got into hiding or tried their best to ignore him, what normally made the situation even worse.

_Devil..._ they whispered behind held up _hands ...skinny white devil..._

Some called him that, others simply _ghost_, a few - like babies or toddlers - simply started to cry whenever he got near, as if already feeling at that young age that there was true evil living behind this black and cold eyes - and again others didn´t even dare to say anything, mainly mentioning him hours later, as if speaking of some horrible nightmare, and even then just spoke of "him" or "you-know-who-I-mean".

Of course the adults tried their best to let everything seem under control, kept on reasuring children that he wasn´t gods punishment sent out for them for not eating their peas and on the same time tried to reasure _themselves_ that _he_ was just a kid, though not quite as easy to handle and normal as the rest, but still just a kid.

All together they knew of these bizarre, frightening powers that were surrounding him all along.

Minutes right after his birth they had known that there was something strange about him.

_Tom Marvolo Riddle_

But never they could have guessed how far from right they had been st this moment and how much of an underestimation it was...seeing now, that "it" - how the staff sometimes called him - grew more powerful and even more unlike them every year.

It had started with slight things, easy to oversee and -hear...like that he was neither as friendly as he could nor as she should be or that he sometimes contradicted a staff´s member ...stuff like that

Time did pass and things got more complicated, although still in a normal manner, like taking other people´s things - the staff was more or less successfull with solving the subject varying from case to case-..

...and just when they thought _he _couldn´t become any worse, things changed from slightly complicated to simply bizzare :

Former normal children began to babble nonsene, a few of the biggest bullies had the strangest accidents which often led to serious injuries...a situation not longer able to be ignored.

The moment seemed to have arrived for the staff to put his foot down and stop it once and for all.

Alas soon they had to understand that, for a long time now, they already had lost control in any forms over the boy.

So all the adults could do was fear, goddamn fear and hope together with the children for someone to wake them up out of this nightmare...

A close look at this child has led to fear, and a look less carefully as should be let that fear continue ...

Just if they had looked a little closer, maybe strained their ears a bit more at night when they passed the room he was sleeping in, then they may have heard it :

Little, muffled sobs; for the careless passenger almost inaudible...and even if they´d heard they would have sworn everything that _it had to be _coming from somewhere else.

..And yet they were there..

When day would meet its end Tom always became nervous which he tried to compensate in the form of raised intolerance and anger.

Then, after dinner, he would thoughfully climb up the stairs to his room, trying to delay what was waiting for him in there, and on the same time knowing that it made no difference where _he_ was...but _it _:

Darkness was the one thing he feared most besides death; so one could say, that every night indeed was an only nightmare.

He lies awake in his bed in the dark, and for awhile he´s able to distract himself with thoughts, and then - oh so suddenly - darkness waves over him completely; giving no chance of defence; washing away all will power; breaks open his minds and lets all bad memories stream out and torture him .. again,again and again...

He tries to fight this darkness, this all surrounding blackness eating up its way through his heart and soul, and so letting him become a bit more empty every night...

He fights a fight he´s already lost in the moment it begins, fighting with powers that no longer can be of any use for him, he no longer can control.

At daytime he might the one to claim to have most control over everything, but when the darkness came, his might faded with the light till nothing of its protection was left.

...At night, he was Tom

...Just Tom

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Hope you enjoyed it :) ...don´t forget to review ;) 


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